Uber to sell Southeast Asian division to competitor Grab

A new report suggests that Uber might be in talks with Grab to offer its entire Southeast Asian unit to the Singaporean company.

Grab remains to be the dominating ride-hailing company in more than 100 cities across Southeast Asia. In the Philippines, the brand is known for their private cars, taxis, and even motorbike ride services.

The company also claimed that thanks to the USD2.8 billion from SoftBank and other investors, they were able to have 95% market share on their taxi ride-hailing units. This means that acquiring Uber would only make things better.

Uber, on the other hand, aims to have a huge stake in the company for an exchange of the sale. The company is preparing for an IPO by next year. And doing the right compromises would really help them to go public.

This strategy is nothing new for Uber. The company has already sold its Chinese ride-hailing division to Didi and got a 20% ownership and 37% from Yandex in Russia.

Since Dara Khosrowshahi took over Travis Kalanick’s position as Uber CEO, the company is finally focused on becoming profitable and fix its ruined reputation.

On the other hand, this move is also great for SoftBank. The Japanese conglomerate has been exerting some effort to have a share in the global ride-sharing industry. Currently, SoftBank has a stake in Grab, DiDi, Ola (India), and 99 (Brazil). The company is also showing some interest in Lyft.